What's Feeding Me 🐛 vol. 1
What's Feeding Me 🐛 vol. 1
a monthly buffet of creative fodder + cerebral snacks
The Webs We Weave is a free weekly-ish newsletter on being in flux, staying connected to ourselves and our creativity, and feeling more connected in the world.
Maybe the best part about being both a Gemini and a Manifesting Generator is the way my whole brain lights up when it finds something new to latch onto, to become momentarily obsessed with.
My mind is a very hungry caterpillar. And few things delight me more than finding a new topic, teacher, project, podcast, idea, framework, or other bits of creative fodder to feast on—except maybe getting to talk about them with other people.
(see also: Gemini.)
You might have noticed in past newsletters I’ve shared a mini-roundup of things that were 'Catching My Attention' below the essay portion. Now it’s feeling like time to mix things up! Going forward, the plan is to experiment with sending one dedicated What’s Feeding Me roundup post (like this one!) around the middle of each month.
I’ll share a little buffet of things that have been keeping me fed and engaged: intellectually, creatively, sensorily, and emotionally. These are also a space where you're more than encouraged to share what's been feeding you, too—both with me and with each other.
Let's get to it!
🎙️ Podcast Faves
This American Life: Math or Magic?
I’ve been a This American Life devotee for years, dating back to childhood summers and long camping road trips with my parents. These days I’m not an every-single-week listener, but I did get totally swept up in this recent episode about finding love and the age old question of whether it’s wiser to trust your head or your heart.
Song Exploder: Stick Season
Fun fact: I’ve yet to make it all the way through Noah Kahan’s song Stick Season without full-on weeping. (Maybe someday.) This episode of Song Exploder is a truly great layer-by-layer breakdown of that song and of how it all came together. (If you’re new to Song Exploder, it’s SO fun and interesting as a concept for a show! This episode is another one of my favorites.)
Maintenance Phase: The Body Mass Index
Rumor has it Maintenance Phase, my favorite wellness + junk science debunking podcast is set to return this month (!!) and this girl. is getting. impatient.
I’ve enjoyed digging back into the archives while I wait and rediscovering some old favorites, including this banger of an episode about the BMI (a great place to start if you’re new to MP). If you want more of a what the actual hell!? roller coaster, their episodes on Celery Juice and Belle Gibson are a wild ride.
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📔 Great Reads
[Poem] To the Sea
The truly delightful Anis Mojgani is Oregon's current Poet Laureate, and I was lucky enough to get to attend a talk with him this month. His poem To the Sea feels exactly like the way I want to be loved.
[Substack Piece] You Don’t Understand How Bad It Is Here
Thanks to Nic Antoinette for sharing this powerful piece from
: You Don't Understand How Bad It Is Here: on trying to capture the staggering cruelty of Israel's occupation of the West Bank.[Personal Essay] Actually, life is beautiful and I have time
Speaking of
, I keep coming back to this permission-giving essay she shared last month:“If life is beautiful and I have time, that means I can work slowly and lovingly on what is most important to me. I don’t have to abandon deeper, more challenging projects to keep chasing the high of tasks that are quick to complete, urgent according to someone else, or sexy to post about on the internet.”
yes yes yes.
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🙇🏼♀️ Current Project or Micro Obsession
Finding a right-fit task management system
I knowww, painfully dry—but hear me out. I’ve always been super interested in how analogue + digital systems hold hands in my life, and how they can coexist in ways that create more ease rather than adding complexity, clunkiness, or redundancy. (I’m also someone who savors the process of blowing up and rebuilding her systems, which I’ve learned to embrace. 🤓)
This is the digital task management system I’m (painstakingly) working on migrating to after purchasing it months ago, hoping it can run parallel with my notebook stack and help me feel a bit less scattered.
(If the idea of digital + analogue systems working together feels interesting to you, this might be an interesting read!)
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🌻 A Human Whose Work I’m Loving
Brendan Constantine
I was introduced to the poet Brendan Constantine earlier this month when I watched the recording of his guest workshop inside inside the writing community I’m in, and I became an instant fan.
His teaching style is inviting and electric, packed with potent wisdom on craft. (I recently wrote about what might be my favorite nugget I learned from him, on ‘listening for the knock’.) I’m now in that mode of just devouring his work: his poetry, all the workshops I can find, all the little nuggets and writing exercises he teaches inside them… take my money.
His poem, The Opposites Game, has gained popularity for a reason—and given that he’s also a performer, watching him read the piece aloud is a real treat.
Rumor has it Brendan runs an annual 30 in 30 Challenge Workshop every April that offers tools and prompts to produce 30 poems in 30 days, and you best believe my eyes are peeled for more info.
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🦴 An Idea I’m Chewing On
I’m slowly wading into the world of poetry and wanting to get better at writing it, but the truth is I think I’m at that annoying beginner stage where it’s really about volume: cranking out a lot of bad-to-mediocre work to grease the wheels, so you can start to find your rhythm.
Taking inspiration from NaNoWriMo and other daily writing challenges like it, I’m seriously thinking about embarking on my own little private challenge once I’m back from vacation next month: 30 Days of Bad Poems. Just me and a spiral notebook with a list of prompts and my favorite pen, no perfectionism or overthinking allowed.
(Have you ever tackled a daily creative project like this? I want to hear all about your experience, and/or any advice you have!)
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🤣 A Meme, Just Because
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Your turn!
What’s feeding you lately?
If you’re game, share one thing in the comments that’s been feeding you lately. It could be a podcast, a book, a habit, a new favorite thing, a project that’s lighting you up… anything! Let’s crowdsource some good creative fodder. 👇
Until next time,
Michelle
HAHAHA That meme at the end is everything. This is such a fun new feature and I love the way you've set it up. It's fun to get links and resources to things you've been mentioning in our Voxer chats so I can take a deeper dive. I'm definitely going to have to listen to a Song Exploder episode soon—what a fun concept. I've always admired your digital + paper set up and may need to implement some of the tips shared in that todoist post...